Since arriving at Crary Ice Rise (CIR) our drill team have made great progress setting up the hot water drilling system inside the big orange drill tent, and assembling the AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill).
Before we can begin to melt a hole through the 500m ice sheet at CIR we need a supply of hot water, and luckily there’s no shortage of a crucial ingredient for that - snow.
The team started this process by making ’seed water’ by melting snow in a small tub with a heated element. They are now using the warm seed water to melt even more snow, in our huge 12,000 litre flubbers.
Drill tent at CIR. Photo: Glenn Powell / Antarctica New Zealand
